Former SEAP, NEAP, and SCIP Intern Joel Abraham graduated summa cum laude from South Harrison High School with a 4.0 un-weighted grade point average. He currently attends West Virginia Wesleyan College and is double majoring in Computer Information Science and Mathematics while pursuing a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. Joel has also interned at the NASA IV&V Facility each summer since 2008.

“Try for this, I know you can do it,” my teacher said as she handed me a piece of paper. Glancing down, I saw the words ‘Science and Engineering Apprenticeship Program.’ I politely took the paper and continued with my class work. Later that night my mom found the application on the floor beside my backpack with a slew of books strung around it.

“Do you realize what this is?” my mom asked holding up the paper.

“Yeah, it’s an application I got at school today,” I replied.

“But do you realize what it is? It’s an application for an internship at the NASA IV&V Facility.”

I had no idea that this brief dialog would lead to five amazing summer internships with NASA’s IV&V Program.

Each summer, interns just like me, take on projects that give them the opportunity to develop their analytical and communication skills. Some of the challenging and diverse tasks I have been given have enabled me to polish these proficiencies by participating in hands-on projects, writing formal reports, and conducting various presentations. The unique internship programs offered at the NASA IV&V Program have provided me with remarkable opportunities to apply this knowledge while learning IV&V techniques, engineering principles, and office etiquette.

During the internship, each student is paired with a mentor. These mentors invest their time and efforts in order to help the interns succeed. Being able to work with many great mentors has been a blessing. Their support allowed me to work with NASA software and create tools to be used by the IV&V Program in the future! I’m not the only one who has reaped the benefits of this program. Students from north central West Virginia and, more recently, all over the United States have benefited from these programs, as well.

So, to all of those who have sacrificed their time and efforts to invest in the lives of young people, on behalf of all of the NASA IV&V interns, I would like to extend a very sincere thank you!For more information about NASA IV&V internships, please contact STEM Initiatives Lead Jess White at Jesse.E.White@nasa.gov or visit this link.

Steven Hard is the Project Manager for IV&V’s OC Flight-1 effort. He is also a member of the West Virginia University (WVU) Robotics Team in Morgantown, West Virginia.

OC Flight-1 development team member Alan Didion and I went to the State Fair of West Virginia to join the West Virginia University Benjamin M. Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources (CEMR) booth set up within the West Virginia University building on the grounds. We represented WVU’s chapter of the Student Partnership for Cosmic Exploration (SPACE), which is a multi-disciplinary student group aimed at helping students get internships with NASA and broadening student awareness of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) opportunities. Alan is the co-president of SPACE, whereas I’m just a member spreading the word.

We brought with us the WVU Mars Rover, which was built by the WVU Robotics Team and competed in the Mars RASC-AL RoboOps Challenge. We also brought both a mockup and a real version of the TubeSat flying on the OC Flight-1 mission. We talked about the results of the RoboOps competition, showed a demonstration of the mobility and manipulation capabilities of the WVU Mars Rover by turning in place, performing short arc-steering translations, and retrieving rocks with the robotic arm. The vision system was also displayed using a nearby Video Graphics Array (VGA) monitor. Discussions transitioned to the Space Flight Design Challenge concept and the OC Flight-1 mission as interest propagated across the display table.

This booth was a wonderful venue for getting the word out about our efforts. We all very much enjoyed the State Fair of West Virginia and hope that our message made an impression.

Ashley D’Annunzio is the Executive Assistant for the Office of the Director. She is responsible for special event coordination and provides executive support to NASA’s IV&V Program.

We look forward to your attendance at our 2012 Annual Workshop on Verification and Validation being held at the West Virginia University Erikson Alumni Center in Morgantown, WV. As the date gets closer, please be sure to check our website – https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ivv/workshops/index.html – for updates. In the meantime, below are a few guidelines and some information to help prepare you for the workshop.

Guidelines for Attendees

Be open-minded. Be willing to listen and learn.

Have fun! You have access to all the players this week. Get the most out of these interactions that you can.

Respect the time. The schedule will be strictly followed. Please be sure to be in the meeting rooms at the scheduled times. If you need to be late, please enter the meeting rooms as quietly as possible.

Respect the presenters. If you need to work on your laptop during a scheduled presentation, please leave the meeting room to do so. Please do not play games or engage in social media (unless you are bragging about the workshop ) during presentations. We have scheduled plenty of breaks for you to check email or do other work as required.

A small meeting room will be available all 3 days to schedule short break-out sessions. Please contact Lisa Downs (304-612-9761, Sadie.E.Downs@nasa.gov, or in-person at the Workshop) to schedule a meeting. The meeting room cannot be scheduled for longer than 2 hour slots.

If you require any kind of assistance during the workshop, please see a member of the Workshop Committee. The members will all be wearing shirts that say “NASA IV&V.”

There is no cost for food at the pre-workshop event, breakfasts, lunches, breaks, or the evening receptions (THANK YOU to the sponsors!) Also coffee, tea, juice and soda will be provided at the breakfasts and lunches however you will have to buy your own drinks at the pre-workshop event and evening receptions (cash bar).

All days will begin promptly at 8:00 AM. If you plan to take advantage of the breakfast, please arrive early enough to enjoy it or to take it into the conference rooms with you.

Additional Guidelines for Posters and Demos

Posters should be approximately 2’ x 3’ and may be color or black and white. Electronic posters will be due to the IV&V Workshop Committee via e-mail to Bree.A.Layton@ivv.nasa.gov no later than August 15, 2012 in PDF format. If you require additional time, please let us know by August 15th. This year, the IV&V Workshop Committee will provide printing of the posters. If you have any special requirements, please send that information as well.

If there are any special requirements for demo set-ups, please contact Bree Layton via email at Bree.A.Layton@ivv.nasa.gov prior to September 11th.

Time has been scheduled for demos and posters each day. Please ensure that you have a representative present at the scheduled times.

Additional Guidelines for Presenters

A laptop pre-loaded with all of the presentations will be provided in each meeting room. If you require a special set-up or would prefer to use your own laptop, please let Lisa Downs know ASAP so that we can test your setup prior to your scheduled presentation.

Leave your title at the door. Your presentation should focus on the method/idea. It should not be a resume or advertisement of your personal or organization’s capabilities. We are here to learn from each other. If you are interested in providing information regarding your company’s services, there are sponsorship opportunities available.

Don’t be afraid to introduce new ideas.

Respect the time and stay within your allotment (30 minutes). Timekeeping will be strict!

If you have any additional questions, please contact Lisa Downs at 304-367-8252 or Sadie.E.Downs@nasa.govSee you in September!

Sarah Layman is the NASA Engineering and Apprenticeship Program (NEAP) assistant. She is responsible for intern on-boarding success, internship experience success, intern accountability, and presentations at IV&V and Headquarters coordination.

Jess White is the STEM Initiatives Lead. He is responsible for ensuring internship program goals are met, if not exceeded, as well as continually seeking ways to improve internship offerings for students.

For 20 high school interns, the summer of 2012 may not be one they forget anytime soon. The interns came from high schools located all over West Virginia, which represented the IV&V Program’s 17th class of summer high school interns. The interns participated in a full-time eight week internship experience that provided them the opportunity to better their science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) skills, as well as their professional etiquette skills in NASA’s workforce. The NASA IV&V Engineering Apprenticeship Program began on June 11, 2012 and concluded on August 3, 2012. STEM Initiatives Lead Jess White feels there is a two-pronged goal possibility from this experience.

“It is our goal to provide students with real world workforce preparatory experiences, promote interest in NASA and STEM disciplines, and better prepare a future workforce and based on intern participants projects,” White said. “We are well on the way to infusing the next generation of STEM professionals into NASA’s and America’s future workforce.”

The high school interns had the opportunity to present their project efforts to an audience at NASA Headquarters which enabled This Week @ NASA media coverage. The video coverage can be found here. Also while at NASA Headquarters, the high school interns had the opportunity to meet NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden, who spoke to the interns and their families about the value of participating in programs like these, and how they (interns) will be responsible for leading NASA’s future missions. NEAP intern Ryder Huggins, like the other interns, realized the magnitude of this experience.

“Meeting the Administrator was a once in a lifetime experience and one I will never forget,” Huggins said.

Congratulations are due to these interns and a special thanks to the IV&V Program and mentors who volunteered their services in support of these internship initiatives.

Eric Sylvania is the NASA Project Manager for the Magnetospheric Multiscale mission (MMS) IV&V effort. He is responsible for the day-to-day planning and execution of the technical and programmatic activities for the IV&V effort. Anita Berns is the Lead Engineer for the MMS IV&V effort and Brandon Miller is an analyst on the MMS IV&V Team.

Each summer the Educator Resource Center (ERC) hosts a week-long workshop for educators on a variety of topics to supplement the curriculum and help meet national and state educational standards. In early July, the ERC hosted a group of educators for a “Space Weather” workshop, including an overview of magnetic reconnection and MMS. I, along with some other MMS IV&V team members, heard that the MMS project was going to be highlighted during the workshop, so we contacted the ERC to see if we could participate. As a result of this collaborative effort, Anita Berns, Brandon Miller and I were able to spend time with the educators in an effort to help them understand a little bit about what we do here at the NASA IV&V Program.

Anita and I provided the educators with an overview of the program, some insight into what IV&V is (and what IV&V is NOT!), and a few thoughts about the MMS project and the MMS IV&V effort, while Brandon provided some practical, real results from the IV&V analyses performed on MMS software. The educators were very receptive of the presentation, asked lots of questions and were very appreciative of the insight provided by the IV&V team. The IV&V team was very thankful for the opportunity to collaborate with the ERC and to be given an opportunity to talk to the folks on the front lines of our education system that will have a chance to influence the next generations of scientists, engineers and mathematicians.

For more information about the ERC and/or opportunities to collaborate, contact Todd Ensign at todd.ensign@ivv.nasa.gov or learn more about the ERC by visiting their website at http://erc.ivv.nasa.gov.

For more information on this workshop, check out the ERC’s Josh Revels’ blog entry.

Josh Revels works in IV&V’s Educator Resource Center (ERC) as the Technical Librarian. He helps maintain their social media accounts and also assists with internal communications.

During the week of July 16, 2012, the NASA IV&V Program Educator Resource Center (ERC) was home to 12 West Virginia teachers. The teachers, who traveled from as far as Parkersburg and Paw Paw, engaged in the ERC’s 2012 Space Weather Reporting Camp. The camp was combined with the Space Weather graduate course, instructed by West Virginia University’s assistant science education professor Dr. Jeffrey Carver and research assistant professor of physics Dr. Amy Keesee. Prior to attending the hands- on activities, teachers spent time online with readings about the sun and sun-earth relationships.

This workshop was very different from others, as many teachers directly observed the sun with a special solar filter for the first time. Additional mechanisms for observing the sun included the use of “Sun Spotters”, which allowed for sunspots to be visible as a shadow of the sun appeared on a piece of paper. Alongside WVU associate professor Margie Darrah, teachers solved real-life space scenarios that involved mathematics.

After building their very own candy, paper, or LEGO models of Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS), the teachers took a day trip to tour NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where they were able to interact with NASA mission specialists, including MMS. As part of the tour, the participants explored the Space Weather Control Center, which helped inspire the production of Space Weather Reports, much like below.

At the end of the week, it was the teachers who were expressing their gratitude for the free ability to use the equipment available at NASA IV&V’s ERC. One teacher stated anonymously, “The most valuable part of this experience is gaining the ability to borrow kits such as the iPads, solar telescopes, sun spotters, and the electromagnetic spectrum kit.”

The ERC staff eagerly waits for next summer’s camps and hopes it is as much of a success as the 2012 Space Weather Reporting Camp.

IV&V Project Manager Eric Sylvania is one of the 5K event organizers. He is also responsible for organizing IV&V’s first recreational running club.

On September 15, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. hundreds of runners will gather to complete a 5,000m race, equal to about 3.1 miles, through the I-79 Technology Park in Fairmont, W.Va. So, why will they be doing this? Well, there are the obvious reasons: improved health, better well being, stress reduction, etc. However, one of the less obvious reasons some walkers and runners will be up for the challenge is the benefit to the Combined Federal Campaign, or the ‘CFC’. So, what is the CFC, you ask?

The CFC is the world’s largest and most successful annual workplace charity campaign, with more than 200 CFC campaigns throughout the country and internationally to help to raise millions of dollars each year. Pledges made by federal civilian, postal and military donors during the campaign season (September 1, 2012 to December 15, 2012) support eligible non-profit organizations that provide health and human service benefits throughout the world. The CFC supports more than 4,000 non-for-profit organizations as a result of the many campaigns conducted throughout the fiscal year. The CFC Local Federal Coordinating Committee provides oversight for the North Central West Virginia Combined Federal Campaign and also determines eligibility for the local charities that apply to participate in the campaign. For more information, go to http://www.opm.gov/cfc/. You can find out more about our local CFC chapter here.

So, on race day, when you toe the line with the other runners, remember that there are several good reasons for running the CFC 5K at NASA IV&V: health, gratification, and the list goes on. Nevertheless, the most important reason is to benefit the CFC and the many great organizations it represents. Please remember that $10 of each registration fee will be given directly to the CFC. Pre-race registration ($20) ends on August 31, 2012. After August 31, 2012, you can register up until 8:30 a.m. on race day for an additional $5 ($25 total). For more information about the race, you can visit the 5K page on our website, or iPlayOutside.

If you have any questions about partnering in support of the race, or about the race itself, please feel free to contact one of the following individuals:

Gregory D. Blaney was selected as the Director of the NASA IV&V Program in December 2010. Mr. Blaney has worked for NASA since 1983. Mr. Blaney started working for NASA at Goddard Space Flight Center in 1983 working for the Bendix Field Engineering Corporation supporting NASA’s Satellite Tracking and Data Network. Mr. Blaney entered the Civil Service in 1988 and advanced to the position of Network Director, a position he held until 1996, when he accepted a position here at the NASA IV&V Facility.

I’m pleased to introduce the NASA IV&V Program’s new blog. We now have Facebook, Twitter and this blog to communicate program information quickly and easily to others. Here at NASA IV&V Matters, we hope to share updates about our mission work, capability and tool development, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) outreach, and many of our other services. We believe that sharing this information can not only help us stay open, honest and transparent, but also help us better connect with you, the reader.

The IV&V Program has a lot of positive things to share, so for those IV&Verson staff interested in submitting, please read the guidelines generated by the Strategic Communications Office in advance. These guidelines will ensure everything that is posted on our blog properly represents the IV&V core values and reflects positively on our overall program.

Please engage us by commenting, as we do look forward to connecting to you. Thank you for taking time to visit NASA IV&V Matters.